The charming Ponte Vecchio in Florence

If we talk about the wonderful Florence, so rich in art and culture, we cannot not to think of the Ponte Vecchio.

This symbol of architectural art known throughout the world, crosses the Arno River in its narrowest point.

History

The bridge in the position where we find it today was rebuilt after a collapse occurred in 1177, infact it was discovered that in the pillars and in the extremities there were oldest remains such as previous beams. In 1333 there was a terrible flood and the bridge was swept away, in 1345 it was rebuilt at three crossings.

An important advent was when in 1442 the authorities decided that, as a matter of cleaning and also not to create chaos in the streets, the butchers of the time (‘beccai’) had to gather just in the shops on the Ponte Vecchio.

There they would no longer produced the dirt they created in the streets of the city when carrying the smallest scraps of meat, in fact on the bridge they could fall directly into the river below.

So since then the Ponte Vecchio became the place of the meat market and where there were exactly the butchers, who later became the owners of those shops, also adding untidily some small rooms jutting out over the river.

In 1565 it was built for Cosimo I the “Vasari Corridor” precisely from the name of the architect who designed it, Giorgio Vasari.

This corridor was placed in a way to ensure that the political and administrative center, which was located in the Palazzo Vecchio, was connected to the private residence of the Medici, the Pitti Palace.

The “Vasari passage” also passes through the Uffizi Gallery, and not only.

In 1593, by order of Ferdinand I, the shops, where until then the butchers stayed, were instead occupied by goldsmiths and jewellers.

The Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge not to be shot down by the Germans in 1944, during the Second World War. This is due thanks to the German representative in Florence, Gerhard Wolf, whom was dedicated a memorial plaque that is located on the bridge same. Only some parts of the bridge were damaged during the war.

Ponte Vecchio is composed of three great lowered arched crossings, and the passage at the sides has two rows of workshops obtained in ancient arcades.